Uruk Hai Scouts

In between covering myself in PVA glue and polyfilla, I have managed to pick the paintbrush up from time to time too... and before my blog posts become a little boring, with repeated pictures of a certain white rocky staircase... I thought I'd put up some pics of models I finished recently...

Uruk Hai Scouts...

This is one box of 24 (that's the old size boxes)... done. I'll be needing these troops as part of my ongoing Journey-book campaign - they'll get an outing first at Amon Hen, where they break up the Fellowship, and then will see ongoing use through the events of the Two Towers... raiding the Westfold, the battles at the Fords of Isen and on to Helms Deep...

In the movie, these troops look virtually black, but I wanted at least a little colour to them, so after usual black undercoat, I used a dark pallette; using GW Bestial brown for the Uruk skin, and then Foundry 34B, 6A, 31A and GW Rhinox Hide for the various clothing, leather armour effects, rotated around through the various models. The metal armour got the usual Tin Bitz followed by BoltGun drybrush (or Gun metal). Exposed hair was drybrushed Foundry 34B. The whole model then washed in black wash, then the small edge highlights picked out again with the base colour, on the clothing and leather armour, and skin. Facial detail was picked out on those without helmets, and some white-hand marks painted on the exposed faces...

Then, since they're just plastic figures, and not so likely to chip as metal ones are, I didn't bother with the polyurethane gloss varnish, but just went straight to Vallejo matt acrylic brush on varnish. Then based as usual. Thinned PVA on the base, sprinkled on fine beach sand, washed in Vallejo Sepia wash. Dry brushed with Vermin Fur and then 'cream' and finally spots of static grass PVA'ed on.

Job done...

I rather like them, and think they'll make versatile skirmish scouting troops for various scenarios without being the 'tanks' that the main uruk soldiery can be - might give some of my Riders of Rohan a fighting chance then!

I've also got Lurtz lined up to paint, as well as Mauhur, and an Uruk scout command set of banner and drummer. Plus half dozen or so old metal uruk scouts to add to this force... and the scenario scout models carrying Pippin and Merry...

I've got another couple of boxes of plastic scouts too in case I need them. Originally bought for WOTR scale games, not sure I will need them now in the SBG setting, as WOTR seems to have gone phutt! We'll see...

Grrrr "Find the Halflings! Find the Halflings!"...

.....

"They're taking the Hobbits to Isengard!" ... ;-)

More Moria work...

Underground matters of Moria nature continue to keep me busy... more work over the weekend...

Finally got stairway properly re-positioned and level this time... also built up a more rocky irregular surface to back wall left of causeway (as it was too smooth before), to better match back wall down to right... and lengthened final section of stone bridge across last gully...

With flash...

And with side wall MDF panelled "de-warped" - its now glued into position, and pre-done foam/poly and gallery glued back into position against it...

...No flash... I often wonder which way is best to photograph...

Just need to block up the gap at base and rear corner with more poly chunks and skim the whole in polyfilla again...

After that, I think it will be time to sort flame effects and wiring through base, and battery pack placement and concealment... possibly may include switches so each flame can be switched on individually... though this might be a little OTT? Not that the whole thing isn't already eh? ;-)

So I am kind of back on track to where I should have been a few weeks back now...

While the above was gluing and drying, I started making Balins Tomb. Once again, 'Celevue' has given a very good idea of how to make a detailed tomb in his battle report on One Ring Forum... He's clearly done the hard yards in endlessly staring at the movie footage to see what goes where, so I will be basing my effort upon his excellent example... I doubt this will be quite as detailed as his, but it should make for an interesting skirmish game none the less...

Balins Tomb started...

More to follow...

Weekend work - Moria continued...

More work over the weekend, saw progress on my Moria terrain...

I managed to build up the rocks on back wall of causeway to right of stairs... polyfilla looks dark as its not fully dried yet... also, photo perspective may seem odd... I actually had it lying on its back while I worked on it, and photographed it that way, and have rotated the picture around - that's why the paint tin is upside down in the background ;-)

The side wall is undergoing more reinforcing and straightening still... that part of the build is becoming a bit of a nightmare! I am beginning to wonder whether I should even bother with it, but its one of those classic movie moments - seems a shame not to try and do it justice... I'll get there in the end I guess... this project is rapidly becoming known , at least to me, as 'Bowmans Folly'! ;-)

I should buy shares in Polyfilla!

Back to the Bridge of Khazad Dum board... and I finished making the chasm edge... with my DIY 'plaster cloth'

I made up more polyfilla, though quite runny with an excess of water, then also poured some PVA glue into the mix. I cut strips of crepe bandage and dunked them in the mix, keeping one end dry. This I hot glued to the top edge, then draped the wet cloth down over the chasm edge, going back over the dry top piece with more of the mixture to blend it all together. Strip by strip, I worked my way along both sides... a messy process but it worked and is strong.

I now want to texture up the surface of this chasm, and am thinking of breaking up more foam (or maybe also bark mulch chips) into tiny fragments - spraying the surface with thinned PVA, sprinkle the fragments on , then spray again with glue to seal, them maybe skim coat with thinned filla again if it needs it or just paint with sand textured paint... I'll have to try it out see how it looks...

I was looking long and hard at the rubber rock molds you can get from Woodland Scenics and other suppliers at my local hobby stores. They are rather pricey and you would need several different ones to avoid repeating the same rock over an over... hmmm ... I like the look of them, but...

I also got my Dwarrowdelf pillars finished and painted... I'll show them soon, after the Watcher in the Water Battle report, as would be about the right timing! ;-)

Further Moria activity included cutting out a base board for Balins tomb, and sketching out a plan of how to build up the walls and pillars on it... So I guess that will be more foam cutting this weekend...

Sailing the Seven Seas...

Lots of work over the weekend - first job was to Liquitex the sea surface, that I had painted up last weekend...

I wasn't sure how much Liquitex (Gloss Gel Medium) I would need to cover the board (120cm x 180cm) so ordered up a couple of medium sized pots. Turns out I only needed half one medium pot (about 250mls all up). I painted it on and spread it out into a thin layer with a medium sized household paintbrush, then used a large make-up blusher brush to stipple a pattern into it .... working my way across across the board as I did so. It was touch dry by end of the day but I left it overnight to fully dry before putting anything on it...

Its certainly better than the Mod Podge I mentioned earlier in another post... I used that on my river sections, but I think I may go over that with the Liquitex...

Once dry, I let my Pirate crew take their sloop, the 'Becky Boo' for a sail...

And then I can put the port board back down on top, and the Becky Boo can moor up against the jetty...

I am rather pleased with the effect... and I have plenty Liquitex left to to do my other board that the Jungle/Desert Isle sits on... plus other water effects that may come up...

On related 'pirate matters' I also finished my Brig over the weekend, at least in terms of building it; adding the anchors to the catheads and swivel guns to rear deck sides. Theres endless little extra details I could add, but I feel it is done sufficiently now - it is after all a gaming piece, not a scale model and the more stuff you put into it, the less space you have for model placement... I was going to add a Capstan, but I'd lose a chunk of deck space... so decided to leave it out. Just got to finish painting it up now... oh and add the name plate at the back, that's the final bit of making to do...

I also got a bunch of other terrain making and painting work done over the weekend, more work on Khazad Dum Bridge board, the Causeway and finished the Dwarrowdelf Towers, and almost finished painting the Uruk Scouts - should get those done over the course of this week... and finally got round to playing out the Watcher scenario too, but I'll blog these extra activities through the week... stay tuned!

More work in Moria and a return to the Caribbean

With work on the Causeway stalling, due to a realization I'd positioned the stair way in the wrong place, I decided to find something else to make through the week, until the weekend rolled around again, and it would give me more time to fix up the causeway stairs...

So continuing the Moria theme, the one iconic thing about the Dwarrowdelf, are the pillars... the end of last weekend saw me rough out the main pillar shapes from Styrofoam, thanks to a heads up from 'Celevue' on the rough dimensions he had used for his.

They are made from 5cm thick styrofoam (I actually had 2.5cm thick sheet so had to glue two thicknesses together). The base piece is 9cm x 9cm. The mid piece 7cm x 7cm and the top pillar section is 25cm tall. Cutting these bits out was fairly straight forward. The lengthy bit was then cutting out all the polygon shapes. For this I used 5mm Depron sheet, which once each piece was cut out, I sliced it in half reducing the thickness to about 2.5mm. There are 3 overlaid pieces to each panel, to effect the design... This took me most of the week...

Dwarrowdelf-themed pillars, with orc for scale.

I am the first to admit they are not a perfect copy from the ones in the movie - its such a tricky design to copy perfectly - and so I am going to call these "Dwarrowdelf-themed" pillars! Since this picture was taken I have skim coated over the depron areas, in plaster to fill all the little gaps and give some texture. I have also cut back the corner side edges of the tall pillar sections by 1cm, and finally tonight, base painted them dark grey. A light drybrush with a lighter grey tomorrow should finish them off...

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When the weekend finally rolled around, it was time to go back to the causeway and figure out what to do...

I needed to shift the stair way about 4" to the right as you look at it. I grabbed a long wood saw and sawed the main upright from the back wall, then cut the widened base of each 'leg' from the base board. Thankfully it all came away in one piece. So after a bit of extra measuring, trimming and fitting, I glued it back into where it should go... I also used the time to clad and build up the widened board back and base with foam and poly off-cuts...

Back and base widened and foam/poly clad...

Once the glue has dried, I'll skim it up in plaster again to hide the joins  etc., then build up a rock surface again on the widened back wall section. You can see where I have cut back the yellow expanding foam and skimmed the rock surface previously, to left of back wall...

... and Causeway stair relocated.

So now when Boromir runs out to edge of the broken stairway, there is now nothing below him...

Looking down into the yawning chasm depths...

Back to the sidewall and it was a case of the 'appliance of science', or at least in this case the appliance of large weights, and strips of MDF to fix the warping issue! Once this is dry I'll be able to think about positioning the side wall again with the goblins 'shooting gallery'

fixing the warping...

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So after all this work down in the Black Pit that is Moria, (also known as my garage), it was time to come back up to the sun, and take a jaunt round the Caribbean!

Chris has been playing a new game he got with his pocket money for the Xbox; Assassins Creed 4 - which is set in the Pirate era, so as you can imagine we've been watching Pirates of the Caribbean again, and been looking at our Pirates and Legends of the High Seas stuff.

Having finally had success with water effects, on the Watcher board, I decided to do a full sea board with it, so have repainted one of my table tops in a sea pattern, using a stippling technique, with various blues, turquoises, a little green and dark patches. This I will go over with the Liquitex gel, but will need to order another pot to have sufficient to cover the board...

Caribbean sea, painted, awaiting Liquitex...

Also, having found an easier simpler method to bend balsa strips (just leave them soaking in water to soften them), I returned to a long forgotten project, and finished my jolly boat... a very simple design from a template, I made some time ago. I am just trying to decide if its worth making some oars for it...

Jolly boat brings pirate to shore...

This pirate activity, prompted a game of pirate action... Chris rarely wants to play a simple scenario... I guess that's where a child's imagination comes to the fore...

My Brig was set up, anchored just offshore of the Isle, then the Kraken attacked! ( using Watcher-in-the-water tentacles). Needless to say, my pirate crew were nimbly plucked from the vessel and squashed, pulled apart and drowned, (not necessarily in that order!) and the ship started taking a battering... seeing his doom near at hand, and having seen his captain pulled apart, the quartermaster thought "bugger this for a game of soldiers, I'm offski!" , and nimbly jumped overboard, despite his wooden leg, and landed in the jolly boat. A few other scurvy hands who had been hiding below decks, followed his example, and they rowed to shore while the Kraken remained distracted by destroying the ship...

Having made it ashore, they had just made it inland when they were set upon by cannibal natives, evidenced by blowpipe darts whizzing past their ears!

Having miraculously somehow managed to keep their powder dry, they fired a volley with their pistols and charged! The resulting fracas saw most of the cannibals cut down, with the rest fleeing back to their village, but not before the Quartermaster was murderously clubbed over the head!

And that was where we left our little adventure for the day... but not before I showed Chris this figure from the Northstar kickstarter... as expected, he just about exploded with excitement...

... not sure if I'll be going with the kickstarter, but I am certainly keen to pick this figure up once its available...

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To finish off the weekend, once I had rescued my Brig from the bottom of the depths, I added a little balsa detail to it; the Cat-heads for the anchors and some trim below the rigging on the hull sides... one of these days I'll fully complete it!

I also had a rummage in the 'unfinished projects box' and dug out my other pirate sloop I had half finished a long time ago - I feel more balsa cladding coming on...

Another weekend task was tarting up my old river sections, adding a water ripple surface texture with the Mod Podge I bought earlier... that I left drying over night... boy, has that stuff got an odd smell!

I finally had another look at my Khazad Dum bridge board... I felt I had cut a rather too linear cliff edge (again having simply followed the mission brief in the LOTR scenario books). So I broke out the jigsaw and cut a kind of sharks tooth type pattern along the chasm edges, and then started resurfacing the cliff face using home made plaster cloth; crepe bandage soaked in a mix of runny plaster and PVA glue, till I ran out of crepe... another project to finish off through the week...


As always busy busy...

The Watcher in the Water - custom scenario board finished.

Finally, managed to complete my Watcher in the Water terrain board... this kind of grew from a humble plan following the guide in the FOTR Journey book... But then I saw what effort Celevue had put into making his one on the The One Ring Forum... and remembering back to descriptions in the novel, I decided to expand my vision for the board...

I wanted to create the impression of a pretty sheer cliff face looming up, at the end of an old tree lined over grown path. If I recall correctly the region had become known as Hollin due to the holly trees that grew there and lined the path. I also wanted the stream to tumble down some smaller cliffs to the left of the path, and go on to fill a small lake or pool. This pool has washed away part of the path, revealing subsurface rocks and stones. The excess of water has also killed the trees whose position the pool has engulfed, so dead trees remain upright and also fallen and submerged through the pool.

Most of these features we don't see in the movie because it is set as a night scene, so the darkness means most of it was either simply not done, or couldn't be seen...

The board progressed well until I came to grief using some water effect products.... This had to be ripped off the board and other products researched and sourced, finally producing an effect I was after...

I have decided to show this fully illuminated, before we play the battle scene, as I am going to try some low lighting for the game to give it that night time quality...

So here's the board, I hope you enjoy the pictures.

The Doors of Durin...

Inscribed with Ithildin, which mirrors only star light and moonlight...

Speak Friend and Enter!....

And with the door open...

A better look at the stream and small waterfall

A close up of the water surface, also showing depth...

The stream, washing lighter silts through into the main pool...

Another water surface shot...

Reverse view from cliff tops...

Hopefully not too long now till we get round to playing the game!

Roll up Roll up! $$$$$$ Stuff For Sale...

Roll up Roll up...

No it's not rat on a stick! (Image courtesy of Diskworld Miniatures)

... 'I'd be cuttin' me own throat if I went a cent cheaper'... to quote Mr Dibbler! ;-)

OK, no great shakes really, just trying to drum up a bit of interest...

As part of my ongoing figure rationalization, I have decided to try and reach a slightly greater audience for figure sales than simply New Zealand's Trademe (a homegrown 'Ebay' for us Kiwis) ...

And besides both Trademe and Ebay want their cut (and Ebays fees are based on a %age of total sale inc. shipping costs!, which will hurt selling from the Antipodes)... and Ebay I have found a bit of a pain as a seller, coming back to it recently, especially being out here on the edge of the world, as they seem to want you to quote shipping costs before you can get anything listed, for every possible destination, up front - I buggered about with it for a while and gave up...

So anyway - I have added a FOR SALE page to the blog, just under the blog header image at top...

I have added a few things to get the ball rolling so to speak, more to be added over time... even if you're not interested in the current items I'd be interested if you think I am pitching the sale at the right price, or not - too expensive, too cheap? Its hard to judge.

I may even use it as a stepping stone for commission painting or at least maybe paint stuff up just for sale, so keep a look out.

Here's the direct link:
http://scottswargaming.blogspot.co.nz/p/for-sale.html

Thanks for looking!

Durins Causeway continued...

Happy Birthday Mrs Queen, thanks for the long holiday weekend! The long weekend here has seen more terrain modelling work on Durins Causeway, and the Watcher Board.

I have skim coated the whole structure of the causeway, in polyfilla, and then built up the rocky areas using off cut chunks of white poly, (left over from the pirate isle build) and expanding foam filler (Sika Boom)...

I also sourced some bright yellow LEDs to have a go at making some flame effects with water effects resin, for the gullies in the base... but that will wait for next weekend, probably...

So here's the causeway done up to this point...

The left side wall panel, with 'shooting gallery' for goblins... pillars still to be constructed...

More expanding foam filler added... to side wall...

...and main board...

The foam filler will then be carved up with a box cutter knife into a more rock like appearance,  getting rid of the unnatural ballooning circular whirls... this will then be skin coated in filler again, and finally painted with sand textured paint...

The only thing I am pondering now is, I started this build going off the game base dimensions quoted in the scenario; a 24" x 36" board. Then I decided to add the side wall... The only problem is, when I now add this side wall to the board, for the rocky wall with goblins shooting gallery... it looks VERY close to the causeway... compared to movie images... whether its just a case of, well get used to it, that's how I've made it... OR... expand the width of the board, moving the side wall further away and adding an extra piece of base board and back rock wall section to join it all up??? I'm going to have to ponder this... I cant make it too far away, or the goblin bows will be out of range!

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Back to the Watcher board, and I have had great success with the 'Envirotex Lite' epoxy... for the water area. I made three successive pourings and each dried easily and clear within about 5 hours. I used a translucent dye (Olive Brown) in the mix to darken the colour of the water. Once this was dry I went over the top surface with 'Liquitex Gloss Gel Medium', and used a stippling effect with end of a make-up blusher brush - a spare one rescued from wifeypoos stash - she wont notice one went missing surely??? ;-)  This has dried well and I am very happy with the result.

I am just putting finishing touches to the stream and water fall, should be able to put finished pics up Monday or Tuesday... and then finally get to play the Watcher in the Water scenario... its been a long wait!

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To finish off the weekend, Chris and I had a game, continuing on from the last battle game we had that featured on his blog, the rescue the artifact one... the gist of this game was 350pts of woodelves led by a weakened Legolas, fleeing through Mirkwood, but having evaded their pursuit from the battlefield, are then ambushed by beast in the woods; wargs, spiders and bats... It was a quick and brutal little game, which Chris might write up for his blog, so I wont spoil the read by giving the result here!

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As a final touch for the weekend, having completed the Hobbit dwarfs, and little weapon stash yesterday, I couldn't help but break open the Trolls; Bert, Tom and Bill and got them assembled today... great models, cant wait to paint them up!

Busy busy as always... till next time...

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PS - forgot to mention this before but Ste is having a give away , check out his excellent blog here:
http://offtclub.blogspot.co.nz/2014/05/as-promised-competition-time.html

PPS - After the switch to Google+ comments trial - I wasn't happy that it still wasn't giving me an email feed of comments (couldn't find any setting to tweak to change this), nor was it logging any comments as a number at the bottom of the post on screen, plus the comments pane within blogger 'desktop' had disappeared ... so I switched back to routine Blogger Comments... If you have left a comment under Google+ comments, it may well have now disappeared... Thanks for putting up with the disturbance to service here!

UPDATE - 6/6/14 - Just noticed, since the side panel had not been attached to anything, as the glued on foam blocks and expanding foam has dried the wall piece has warped in over ... stupid mistake to make... so That kinda forces my hand - I'll widen the board and glue extra mdf sheet with reinforcing strips to counter the warping of the side panel.... I am actually now thinking of adding a piece behind the top door of main panel, a flight of stairs down to it... this would allow a join up with Dwarrowdelf section and Balins tomb... modelling megalomania - my mind knows no bounds - or sanity!? ;-)